HDC Leader Hits Back At Criticism Following Light & Life Convention

The Leader of Harborough District Council will meet with Police, landowners and the operator of Market Harborough Showground following the Light and Life Convention at the venue last week.

Cllr Phil Knowles says he was ‘disappointed’ to hear about incidents alleged to have been linked to the religious event, but has hit back at criticism from the opposition councillors.

The Conservative group has accused the authority of ‘overlooking its broader responsibility to provide community leadership’ and called for an independent investigation.

Cllr Knowles will also meet with residents of the Wellington Place Estate, after an illegal encampment prior to the start of the convention, which attracted around 3,000 members of the gipsy and traveller community.

Two serious incidents in which a man arrived a Market Harborough Police Station with a stab wound and two men turned up with serious injuries at St Luke’s Hospital have not been definitively linked to the event by Police.

The Leicestershire force said ‘establishing whether either was linked is forming part of on-going enquiries’.

The council has also stressed the event is held on private land, with no licensable activities.

Cllr Knowles spoke to HFM:

The Light and Life Convention  Pic: Clive Mason

The Conservative group claim the event ’caused significant local distress’ and ‘serious questions must now be asked—and answered—about the preparations made before the festival, and how it was managed during its duration’.

Cllr Simon Whelband is leader of the opposition: